26 Oct 2015

With three draws in three games, new Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is struggling to turn things around at Anfield, and according to Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher, the Reds are still as painful to watch as under much-maligned ex-boss Brendan Rodgers.

Speaking to Sky Sports last night, Carra delivered a withering assessment of Liverpool's performances under Klopp. He scathed:

"Liverpool are boring. No aggression [and] there is not enough being created. The football has not been quick and fast, it's been slow and predictable".

What else can you expect with the likes of Milner, Lallana, Origi, and Can in the starting line-up?

As per usual, though, I was shouted down by head-in-sand fans, who told me I was too 'negative', but eight draws in nine games tells its own story.

Unfortunately, the football will remain turgid as long as Klopp persists with these players, but right now, he doesn't really have a choice.

Coutinho is also struggling this season, but I'd rather have him in the team than any of the aforementioned players. Lallana et al are just not on Coutinho's wavelength, and that's because they're average huff-and-puff players.

Prime example: Lallana has ONE league assist in almost 40 hours of football (last assist in the league: 10th February), and hasn't scored a league goal since December 29th 2014.

It's just not good enough. Coutinho operates on a different level, which is why he has such a great understanding with Sturridge, who is one of Liverpool's only other top-class players.

Put Coutinho in a team with players with vision, anticipation, skill, speed, and awareness (i.e. Barcelona), and he will prosper. Right now, the current Liverpool team has none of these things.

Carra also highlighted what he perceives to be another major 'problem' with the squad:

"There are three No 10s and no wide players. There are some problems with that squad in terms of the quality and the balance."

Carra is clearly referring to Lallana [£26m], Coutinho [£30m-rated], and Firmino [£29m] here, and the blame for this lack of balance lies squarely on the shoulders of Brendan Rodgers.

Over the summer, it was blatantly obvious that Liverpool needed *fast* attacking players capable of providing genuine width (hence my endless calls to sign Andriy Yarmolenko), but Rodgers abjectly failed to bring in the right players (again).

I don't want to blame Rodgers too much, though. Klopp still has a squad of good players to choose from, and it's his decision to continually play three central midfielders in every game (a negative tactic that necessitates leaving a dedicated attacking player on the bench).

In my view, fans should just accept that this season is already a write-off. For Klopp, the next 2-3 months is about steadying the ship, assessing the squad, and figuring out how to fix the current mess, which is a legacy of the last six years of utter transfer failure (not just the Brendan Rodgers era).

There's a bumpy road ahead, but Klopp is a top class manager, and short-term pain will eventually lead to long-term gain.